The H3 tools returns a catchment area as a grid of hexagonal H3 cells, with the travel time to each cell, rather than as a single isochrone shape. That makes it easy to see how travel time changes across a catchment, and to join the results to other data.
Why use H3
Travel time to every cell: each reachable cell comes back with its travel time, so one search shows the whole gradient from near to far.
Longer journeys: up to 10 hours on H3 Custom and 3 hours on H3 Core, compared with 4 hours for isochrones.
Works with other data: H3 is a standard grid, so you can join the cells directly to any other H3-indexed dataset, including TravelTime’s own Data API layers.
Create H3 catchments
Open H3 Custom (Custom toolset) or H3 Core (Core toolset) from the TravelTime toolbox. See Core or Custom tools: which should I use?
Choose your Locations layer and its ID field.
Set the Travel Mode, whether journeys are departing or arriving, and the time (Custom) or time period (Core).
Set the Travel time (in minutes).
Choose a Resolution, from 4 (largest cells, about 1,770 km²) to 12 (smallest, about 300 m²). The default is 8.
Under Properties, choose whether each cell shows the minimum, maximum and/or mean travel time. The default is mean.
Run the tool.
The output is a polygon layer with one row per reachable cell for each location, coloured by travel time:
Index_id: the location the cell belongs toh3_id: the cell’s H3 IDtravel_time_min,travel_time_maxand/ortravel_time_mean: travel time in seconds (you enter minutes, but the output is in seconds)
Maximum travel time by resolution
Smaller cells mean more cells, so the maximum travel time is shorter at higher resolutions.
Resolution | H3 Core | H3 Custom |
4–7 | 3 hours | 10 hours |
8 | 3 hours | 8 hours |
9 | 3 hours | 4 hours |
10 | 90 minutes | 90 minutes |
11 | 45 minutes | 45 minutes |
12 | 30 minutes | 30 minutes |
For large areas, resolution 8 or 9 is usually a good balance between detail and the number of cells ArcGIS Pro has to draw.
Quick H3 for a single location
To check one location quickly, use Quick H3 in the TravelTime tab. See How to use the quick tools in ArcGIS.
What you can do with the cells
Add demographics, places and neighbourhood data to each cell with the Data tools. See How to add demographics, places and environmental data to catchments.
Build territories, coverage heatmaps, travel time rings and cannibalisation maps with the Location Analytics tools. See How to use the Location Analytics tools in ArcGIS.
Full parameter details are in the H3 docs.